‘Tribunals are entitled to take into account additional evidence that was not available to the health and safety inspector when considering an appeal against a prohibition notice, the UK’s highest court has confirmed.’

‘A High Court judge was wrong to override an exclusion clause in a complex contract for the hire of an offshore drilling rig, as the parties were commercial equals and the wording of the clause was sufficiently clear, the appeal court has ruled.’

“Employees working on oil and gas installations in the North Sea whose contract of employment provided for a repeating shift pattern of two weeks’ work on the rig, followed by two weeks onshore on non-working ‘field break’, were not entitled to take their statutory holiday entitlement during time when they had been scheduled to work offshore.”

“Greenpeace has launched legal action in a bid to stop UK offshore drilling in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. The environmental group announced today that its lawyers have filed a claim at the Royal Courts of Justice in London.”

“A door-closing device which ensured that the door of the control room on an oil rig was closed was ‘work equipment’ within regulation 2 of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations (SI 1998 No 2306) and, consequently, a mechanic who was injured while repairing such a device was entitled to bring proceedings under those regulations against his employer and/or the oil rig operator.”